1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network voice applications such as IP telephony and voice chat, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for adapting a conventional computer and telephone for convenient and simple access to network voice applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional Internet telephony, sometimes called Voice over IP (VoIP), has proliferated rapidly in recent years. Other network voice applications, such as Internet voice chat, have also found rapid acceptance by consumers and businesses alike.
Conventionally, Internet telephony requires a consumer to subscribe to an Internet telephony service and to place calls using special software and a computer having a modem, and a sound card with speaker outputs and microphone inputs. The called person must have a similar setup and subscription. Some IP telephony services allow subscribers to place calls to and from standard telephones, but these services must have investments in telecommunications infrastructures such as IP voice gateways for converting and switching IP voice calls between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and the Internet.
Voice chat applications typically do not require a subscription, but can typically be accessed through conventional ISPs and sites such as Yahoo. Specialized software must be configured on the user's computer for encoding and decoding between packetized voice sent over the Internet and sound inputs and outputs via the user's microphone and speakers and computer sound card.
Although technological advances have done much to make network voice applications such as IP telephony and voice chat available to the average consumer, many drawbacks and disadvantages remain.
For example, using a computer microphone and speakers for network voice applications can be inconvenient, results in loss of privacy, ties the user to the computer. More importantly, acoustic coupling between the microphone and speakers is a significant problem, requiring the user to constantly adjust the gain and positioning of the microphones and speakers to prevent feedback and echo. Alternatively, the user may be forced to purchase a headset adapted for use with computer voice applications to reduce the acoustic coupling problem. Meanwhile, conventional telephones are ubiquitous, cheap and do not suffer from acoustic coupling, and consumers are accustomed to using a telephone for personal voice calls.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a more convenient way to conduct network voice applications using a conventional computer. The present invention fulfills this need, among others.